The Abbey stole my money!! (Abbey National)

Member Name: Charles

Product:	Abbey National
Date:	28/05/09 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They are local, so you can get your hands physically around their throats

Disadvantages: Zero response to queries would be an improvement - at least they wouldn't be wrong

I have always avoided the Abbey like the plague, but like the plague it keeps recurring unless it is stamped out once and for all.

I'll start 17 years ago when I had a mortgage with the Abbey National and was moving house. I wanted to move the mortgage to the new house. "Can't be done" they said. But they said the could open a new mortgage far the same amount on the same terms over the existing period. This would apparently be straightforward and not a problem, but 17 years on I am still waiting to hear whether I got the mortgage or not.

After this experience I have avoided them like the aforementioned plague. Unfortunately my wife has just cashed in a 1 year bond with the B&B and still has one with A&L which matures next week. I have a B&B bond which matures mid June. Unfortunately, they have both been absorbed into the Santander group/Abbey.

The first bond was bad enough. We rang B&B to ask what we do about cashing it in and were told that this could only be done by cheque after a written request. This seems strange as they pay the interest monthy into our bank account, but fair enough we did what they asked.
The bond matured on 8th May and a week later we were still waiting for the cheque, so we rang to chase it. We were told that all B&B accounts had been transferred to the Abbey and we would have to chase them. I got the distinct impression that the B&B customer relations lady was more than a little hacked off, but she did give me the new account number at the Abbey.

We walked into the Abbey next day to get our money. After queuing for ages, the lady at the till knew nothing about B&B accounts and then said "That's not one of our account numbers" but checked on the system, and there it was. We were asked for the pass book which we couldn't produce as we had sent it to the B&B as requested - TIP: never send certificates to anyone without keeping a copy. I produced a copy and a copy of the original letter to B&B.

Surprisingly, we were given a cheque - so fair enough. This morning, we got letter from the Business Manager Contracting and Cancellations, Abbey plc. This was dated the 15th May - the same day we got our cheque. First, it quoted an incorrect account number, then went on to say that they couldn't comply with our request for a cheque to be sent (remember they insisted it had to be done that way) and that we would have to go into the branch (which we already did and had got the money - so why wrre they writing to us at all?). This was the first letter we had received from the Abbey on any
subject. It went on to say we had been told this in their previous letter (we never received one) and that we would need to fill in the Personal information page of the bond maturity form they had sent us before going into the branch. We have never been sent any such form. However, they have returned the original fixed rate bond certificate so now I have the money and the certificate.

After this experience, I have obtained my new B&B/Abbey account number from the B&B help line and will be going into the Abbey to get my money out by cheque as soon as it matures.

Unfortunately this is not the end of the story as my wife also has a 1 year bond with A&L as previously mentioned. In the great Santander tradition, she received a form from them giving maturity options : basically, she can roll it over into a new bond or book a financial review with the branch. It doesn't offer the choice of getting the money back. I rang the A&L helpline. No problem - just write to the address they gave me and say what I want done. Enclose the certificate and it will all happen. Yes I can have bank transfer to my bank account. Well - er, no actually. We specifically asked them to acknowledge the instruction. In the intervening ten days she has received two letters from them. The first was from the branch saying she needed to ring them for an urgent financial review. No thanks, I'm an accountant and can do my own! The a second letter which says she has two options - guess what? Yes, you got it - roll it over or book an urgent finacial review.

It is quite obvious to me that they have no intention of following our instructions or even acknowledging them, so we intend to march into the local A&L at opening time and demand her money.

I am furious with this lot. They clearly do not give a stuff about their work or their customers. I can only assume that they are rebranding all their branches as Santander in the hope that customers will think it is someone else and not the bunch of incompent no hopers we already know them to be!!!

I also would have given them zero stars if the system would accept it - no scrub that, we need a minus category for this lot....

Summary: I would rather contract bubonic plague than have anything to do with them ever again